Prerelease 3.177 (Knowledge Changes, Civilians, 3 Home Planet Outposts)

[triggerman602]

Why do the Human Cryogen pods cost 100 energy when they are supposed to be producing 400 energy. That means that they only produce 300 energy.

Kind of silly don't ya think?

The main purpose, thematically, is to keep the cryogenics running.  In order to make sure that's possible, its solar panels have 4x the production capacity that's actually necessary.  You get the excess.  Be happy

Will they break if i put them into low power mode? Does this have any affect on them gameplay wise as opposed to them having no cost and 300 output??

[Fleet]

Its great to have some focus back here on AI War! Your willingness to put new ideas into action, and your attention to bug-fixes, is as always much appreciated.

Thank you.

[Diazo]

Alright, first impressions time.

Lots of new toys to play with!  

Hybrids are much more reasonable, I haven't actually seen an attack on my worlds yet but I'm pretty sure that's because my offensive fleet keeps tangling with them before they attack causing them to fall back.

Attacking an AI system, 4 attacker hybrids present, get off to the side so it's just me vs the hybrids. My fleet has seen combat against the AI and has 2 dreads, 2 light starships and about 150 fighters/bombers, all Mk I against 4  hybrids and their attendant fleets. I didn't destroy any of the hybrids but I make them all run away and still had both dreads, both startships and about 70 bombers/fighters left so much more reasonable.

Then my tunnel vision on the hybrids gets the best of me and the devourer golem that warps in takes me by total surprise and I have no offensive fleet left.  

As for the hybrids, was the HP reduction to 1.5 million global or just the attacker type? I'm only seeing hybrids with 1.5 mil HP in my game now.

On the new toys, have not captured enough systems to try out the new command stations yet, still going econ for the resources.

The higher starting resources are nice, I'm still bottoming out hard but that's because I played turtle to see what the hybrids would do and have only captured one system so far.

No comment on the younglings yet, I'll take one of them next game now that I'm not focused on the hybrids only.

D.

[keith.lamothe]

Then my tunnel vision on the hybrids gets the best of me and the devourer golem that warps in takes me by total surprise and I have no offensive fleet left.

Hahaha, just when you've chased off the new guys who think they're hot stuff, the old timer Cookie Monster has a snack

As for the hybrids, was the HP reduction to 1.5 million global or just the attacker type? I'm only seeing hybrids with 1.5 mil HP in my game now.

All hybrid hulls are now 1.5mil.  The forcefield strengths are variable.  Basically the hulls have to all have the same health because modules can't change parent ship health and the hybrid maturation process does not actually change the base type of the ship (which is thematically correct, it's the Neinzul hive on the ship that is maturing).  This is why I went with 2mil hull hp originally even though it felt a bit high.  But I think 1.5mil will work though I may have to tweak the ff strengths upward.  Using ff-immune attacks against hybrids is a valid tactic, though bear in mind they will kick into retreat mode at 80% hull even if the forcefield is still there.

[Diazo]

Well, in a straight up fight, hybrids are fine however I keep losing after action fleets to them.

What I mean is I warp in, chase off the hybrids then clear out the normal AI forces in the system, then the hybrids warp back in and have a field day with my depleted fleet.

Normally I would retreat rather then fight it out, but I've got the AI type that has Black Hole Machines *everywhere* and I haven't got the resources yet to rebuild my fleet in time to rescue the ships still stuck in system after the AI forces are clear.

I'm considering just blowing the Black Hole machine and eating the AI progress, I haven't had a single fleet survive yet.

I might just start another game and see how it works when I can retreat and save some of my fleet but it's looking like the hybrids are decent at this point, at least in the early game.

They are maybe a bit overpowered still, 70-80% of my losses have been to hybrids not the AI, although I've attacked nothing by AI Mk I systems yet.

We'll see how it goes.

D.

[RCIX]

Just bought the CON ( ), and i gotta say: i'm loving the new Enclave starships and the Vultures!

[AlexV]

Now any ships of radius 120 or higher are not translocatable, so that applies to many starships, all the regular fortresses, etc.

Forgive me if I'm being a bit dim, but what does this actually mean? What is transolcatability?

[Rustayne]

Now any ships of radius 120 or higher are not translocatable, so that applies to many starships, all the regular fortresses, etc.

Forgive me if I'm being a bit dim, but what does this actually mean? What is transolcatability?

There is a ship type that can teleport ships around a planet and kill it.  Basically it makes these type of ships unable to target the bigger type ships.

[keith.lamothe]

They are maybe a bit overpowered still, 70-80% of my losses have been to hybrids not the AI, although I've attacked nothing by AI Mk I systems yet.

Yea, we may need to tone them down a bit more, probably spawn rate and maybe a bit of speed (it sounds like they're being a bit overly difficult to take down rather than just scare off).  May also need to make their modules have an actual build time; currently they just go "poof" and are instantly ready.  Changing that won't be terribly easy but would add a bit to the turn-around time.

One thing to make them have to take longer to come back is to destroy the equipment-module-factories on nearby planets, thus increasing the distance they have to go.

But when playing against a one-way-doormaster... that's just excruciating when fighting an opponent where you need mobility and to be able to strike deep.  Honestly I'd suggest playing against a different AI Type, that's just a really really nasty combo

[Ozymandiaz]

I don't have all the information regarding hybrids yet, is there a thread, or wiki page with em I can check into?

[keith.lamothe]

I don't have all the information regarding hybrids yet, is there a thread, or wiki page with em I can check into?

The main wiki page for the expansion:

http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Children_of_Neinzul

Has this link:

http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Hybrid_Hives

I recently updated it for the newer numbers, so it should be accurate as far as it goes.

[x4000]

Thanks for the support, all! Glad it's mostly a big hit. I think all the questions have been answered except the following:

Will they break if i put them into low power mode? Does this have any affect on them gameplay wise as opposed to them having no cost and 300 output??

Well, think of how energy reactors work -- those stop producing energy at all when in low power mode. Same thing here. So instead of costing 100 and generating 400, they would cost 10 and generate 0. Not a good deal.

[carlosjuero]

Hrm - I like that more and more updates keep coming, but I am leary of the changes to the Home systems. I understand the reasoning behind it... but it invalidates my particular style of play. I tend to turtle up my home world and do slow advances, makes mid-late game tougher but it is how I enjoy the game... now I have to spend even more resources protecting my home system. I will try it out in a few games before coming down with a full opinion, but my gut reaction is that I don't care for it.

[Again, I do understand where you are coming from on that change X - I just don't currently agree that the right way to go about it is to invalidate a play style (even one that isn't the smartest or most used)]

Once I have played a bit w/ the new home systems I will chime in with full opinions on the matter - keep up the good work otherwise

[keith.lamothe]

I wouldn't say that it completely invalidates your play style, though it does represent a disadvantage to it.  Even if you lose _all_ the extra stuff, that's only +45 AIP (by my count) which is bad but not an automatic loss.  If you really wanted to you could adjust the auto-AIP down a bit to compensate, though how much wiggle room you have there depends on your usual settings.  Worst to worst, you could just use a cheat to remove that 45 AIP after the fact ("Get Angry, -45").

[Ktoff]

What about the possibility to turn the additional outposts on/off. similar to astrotrains rebels etc...

Also are those outposts expansion only?

Cheers,
KToff